Five persons, including three women and a 6-month-old baby, were killed and 22 others injured when a Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation bus collided head-on with a van at Kurukkalpatti near Sankarankovil on Saturday night.
Police said a group of people from Rajapalayam were returning home in a van after offering special prayers in a temple at Chettiyapaththu near Udankudi in Tuticorin district. A TNSTC bus, proceeding from Sankarankovil to Kanyakumari, collided head-on with the van at Chinnakovilaankulam near Kurukkalpatti. Shanthi (26), her 6-month-old son Karthikeyan, relatives F. Gnanasekaran (35), N. Selva Vadivu and S. Selvi (25), all from Rajapalayam, were killed on the spot, while 36 others suffered injures. The injured were rushed to various hospitals.
Police found that the farmers, who harvested black gram, had heaped the dry plant on the road and covered it with tarpaulin in the night. As they had kept granite boulders on the tarpaulin, the drivers of both the bus and the van failed to notice the heap .
